Asked by: Lord Lansley (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the scale of the bottleneck between medical foundation training and medical specialty training (1) in anaesthesia, and (2) across all other medical specialties; and what steps they are taking to address it.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to training the staff we need, including anaesthetists and all other medical specialities, to ensure patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it.
As of July 2024, there were 14,085 full time equivalent (FTE) anaesthetists working in the National Health Service and other core organisations in England. This is 407, or 3.0%, more than a year ago and 1,950, or 16.1%, more than five years ago. This includes 7,492 FTE consultants, which is 278, or 3.9%, more than a year ago and 886, or 13.4%, more than five years ago.
We have launched the 10-Year Health Plan which will set out a bold agenda to reform and repair the NHS. Ensuring we have the right people, in the right places, with the right skills will be central to this vision. We will ensure that the number of medical specialty training places meets the demands of the NHS in the future. NHS England will work with stakeholders to ensure that any growth is sustainable and focused in the service areas where the need is greatest.
Asked by: Lord Lansley (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to address the workforce shortages identified in the Royal College of Anaesthetists' The Anaesthetic Workforce: UK State of the Nation Report published on 20 November.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to training the staff we need, including anaesthetists and all other medical specialities, to ensure patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it.
As of July 2024, there were 14,085 full time equivalent (FTE) anaesthetists working in the National Health Service and other core organisations in England. This is 407, or 3.0%, more than a year ago and 1,950, or 16.1%, more than five years ago. This includes 7,492 FTE consultants, which is 278, or 3.9%, more than a year ago and 886, or 13.4%, more than five years ago.
We have launched the 10-Year Health Plan which will set out a bold agenda to reform and repair the NHS. Ensuring we have the right people, in the right places, with the right skills will be central to this vision. We will ensure that the number of medical specialty training places meets the demands of the NHS in the future. NHS England will work with stakeholders to ensure that any growth is sustainable and focused in the service areas where the need is greatest.
Asked by: Lord Lansley (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide pre-exposure prophylaxis against COVID-19 to the most vulnerable groups who are severely immunocompromised.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
The Department is exploring prophylactic use of antivirals for the immunocompromised and evidence continues to be reviewed for potential use in the National Health Service.
The RAPID C-19 collaboration considers national and international trial evidence as it emerges for COVID-19 therapies, for potential treatment and prophylactic indications.
Later this spring, a post-exposure prophylaxis sub-study is expected as part of the PANORAMIC national study to investigate the effect of prescribing oral antivirals to those who are a household contact of a COVID-19 positive individual. In addition, the PROTECT-V study is trialling sotrovimab and niclosamide as prophylactic drugs administered over a six-month period in vulnerable renal and immunosuppressed patients.
Asked by: Lord Lansley (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the emergency use authorisation listed on 8 December 2021 of AstraZeneca's Evusheld for pre-exposure prophylaxis in (1) certain adults, and (2) children.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
We are aware that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) listed an emergency use authorisation for Evusheld in December 2021, which was revised on 24 February 2022. The FDA has modified their dosing regimen according to its available data and consider that a higher dose of Evusheld may be more likely to prevent infection by the Omicron subvariants BA.1 and BA.1.1 than the originally authorised Evusheld dose.
We continue to monitor emerging data for Evusheld and other treatments for applicability in the United Kingdom for prevalent variants and which patient groups could potentially benefit. Evusheld is not currently authorised in the UK.
Asked by: Lord Lansley (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
Her Majesty's Government whether a strategic commercial unit will be established within NHS England, as recommended in the Accelerated Access Review, and if so, when.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Consistent with recommendations set out in the Accelerated Access Review, NHS England continues to develop its commercial capacity and capability in relation to medicines procurement as well as the negotiation of bespoke commercial access arrangements for high cost drugs. As part of this, the Commercial Medicines Unit transferred across from the Department to NHS England on 1 April 2017. NHS England is currently in the process of recruiting to a number of other key posts to support the commercial function more broadly.
Asked by: Lord Lansley (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce a "transformative designation", as proposed in the Accelerated Access Review, for the most strategically important products for the NHS.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
In October 2016 the Accelerated Access Review set out a vision of faster patient access to 21st century medicines and medical technologies, making the United Kingdom a world leading place to design, develop and deploy medical innovations.
The review made several recommendations to ensure that patients get new drugs and treatments faster while the National Health Service gets best value for money and remains at the forefront of innovation. The Government and its key delivery partners are reviewing the review’s recommendations and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Lord Lansley (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to establish the Accelerated Access Partnership as recommended in their Accelerated Access Review; and if so when.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
In October 2016 the Accelerated Access Review set out a vision of faster patient access to 21st century medicines and medical technologies, making the United Kingdom a world leading place to design, develop and deploy medical innovations.
The review made several recommendations to ensure that patients get new drugs and treatments faster while the National Health Service gets best value for money and remains at the forefront of innovation. The Government and its key delivery partners are reviewing the review’s recommendations and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Lord Lansley (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
Her Majesty's Government when they will publish their response to the Accelerated Access Review of innovative medicines and medical technologies.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
In October 2016 the Accelerated Access Review set out a vision of faster patient access to 21st century medicines and medical technologies, making the United Kingdom a world leading place to design, develop and deploy medical innovations.
The review made several recommendations to ensure that patients get new drugs and treatments faster while the National Health Service gets best value for money and remains at the forefront of innovation. The Government and its key delivery partners are reviewing the review’s recommendations and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Lord Lansley (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what they estimate to be the total number of older people accessing local authority-funded social care in each of the last seven years, expressed in numbers and as proportion of the total relevant age group.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Until 2013-14, the Health and Social Care Information Centre collected Referrals, Assessments and Packages of Care (RAP) data from local authorities. These data included the number of people aged 65 and over receiving local authority arranged social care services and are shown in the table.
The information collected does not distinguish between local authority funded and local authority arranged care.
Year | Clients aged over 65 receiving services during the period | As a percentage of the population aged 65 and over |
2007-08 | 1,220,660 | 15% |
2008-09 | 1,215,575 | 15% |
2009-10 | 1,147,695 | 14% |
2010-11 | 1,064,475 | 12% |
2011-12 | 991,230 | 11% |
2012-13 | 895,940 | 10% |
2013-14 | 853,615 | 9% |
Source: RAP P1 return and Office of National Statistics Mid Year Population Estimates | ||
RAP was replaced after 2013-14 with the present system, which collects data in a different way that is not directly comparable with the previous system. During 2014-15, 602,885 service users aged 65 and over accessed long term support and 184,645 accessed short term support from their local authority. As a proportion of the population aged 65 and over, these two figures combined represent 8.3% of the total population of the same age.
Asked by: Lord Lansley (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many local authorities with a social care responsibility have made local authority-funded care available for those with less than substantial care needs, in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The following table shows where local authorities set their local eligibility criteria within the eligibility framework set out in the statutory guidance Prioritising Need in the Context of Putting People First: A whole system approach to eligibility for social care.
| Critical | Substantial | Moderate | Low |
2010/11* | - | - | - | - |
2011/12 | 3 | 121 | 25 | 3 |
2012/13 | 3 | 127 | 19 | 3 |
2013/14 | 3 | 130 | 16 | 3 |
2014/15** | - | - | - | - |
Source: ADASS Budget Survey
* Data not collected
** Data not published
The Care Act 2014 provides the power for Secretary of State to set national eligibility criteria. The national criteria are set out in the Care and Support (Eligibility Criteria) Regulations 2015, which were implemented in April 2015. The national eligibility threshold is set at a level where an adult’s needs have a significant impact on their wellbeing. Local authorities cannot tighten eligibility above this threshold, but they can choose to meet needs below this threshold.